The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 1611

< Episode 161: A Borderless Global Community >

‘Prioritizing the artist’s protection…’

‘Additional performances may be possible later.’

This was the official statement regarding the shocking announcement.

After the announcement of Halo’s world tour schedule, countless inquiries, complaints, and messages flooded the emails of Veil, the tour organizers, and Nohaeil’s label.

Well, it’s normal for reporters to inquire about follow-up announcements after a major reveal.

Halo expected the emails that would come to him after the announcement. Of course, the public outnumbered the reporters among those inquiring, but Halo was just waiting for the surprise gift he had prepared to be unveiled.

Therefore, it was Veil, the record distributor that had a record deal with Halo, that explained why Halo’s world tour schedule was set as follows.

It might seem strange that Veil, merely a distributor and not the entertainment company to which the artist belonged, was delivering official statements like an agency. But no one questioned it.

The close relationship between August Veil and Halo goes without saying—photos of August Veil driving for Halo and shopping with him like a manager are everywhere.

Some even said that August Veil established Veil solely for the sake of the genius artist Halo. They speculated that it was a one-person entertainment company disguised as a music distribution company, exclusively for Halo.

August Veil clearly met Halo in December 2030, making it impossible in terms of timing, but Veil’s dedication made it seem plausible, and many people believed it.

And even if that wasn’t the case, it was difficult to get answers from the enigmatic artist Halo, so they just wanted anyone, whether it was the music distributor or the music producer, to deliver an official statement.

Thus, more complaints than Nohaeil’s label’s official email were directed to Veil, and Veil conveyed Halo’s and their position as they wished.

‘Prioritizing artist protection—’

It was a somewhat understandable reason why the world tour dates were set that way. There would still be dissatisfaction, but at least it was a reason why they couldn’t protest to a 16-year-old artist.

Of course, some suggested that it would be better to hold concerts multiple times in one country rather than a world tour. However, the community became a battlefield when asked which country it should be.

From the British, who claimed that Halo’s musical home was England, to the Americans, who insisted that he currently lived in the United States. And the small number of Koreans who argued that Nohaeil’s hometown was Korea, so it should naturally be held in Korea, were quite impressive.

They vented their screams, malice, and resentment, and when words like ‘solo concert’ or ‘small theater’ came up, they showed symptoms of PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event].

In any case, after Veil released the official statement, the chaos subsided.

[Vienna is the city of classical music, they don’t understand pop in rome]

└ And Halo is classical in Vienna

That’s about the extent of it….

[I still don’t know why he’s performing in a hick town like Hamilton! In Philadelphia]

└ I agree

[Let me say it again, the EU is not a country. Don’t apply a one country, one performance policy to the EU]

[Brazil Tourism Agency (Embratur)_Official: Oh, baby, we don’t bite. A very safe country, probably the safest in the world]

└ ?

Anyway, with the ticketing site for the July performances not even open yet, people were accepting reality and trying to make plans, whether it was breaking their savings or taking vacation.

Then, someone belatedly pointed out.

[But what is the ?]

[I was going to ask too. It was announced as 10 cities, but is one country undecided?]

[Has no one asked Veil about this?]

The [?] that exists after the Los Angeles and Hamilton, Canada performances at the end of October 2032.

People speculated about the gap before going to London.

[Isn’t it not confirmed yet? Are they delaying the answer at the venue?]

└ Halo’s performance?

└ Who

[Looking at the location…from Mexico]

└ First of all, he hates hot weather

└ The performances are spaced out, so he can go anywhere, right?

There were various opinions here.

Americans speculated that since he was performing in the West, he should perform in the East once as well, to be fair, and South Americans argued that the next turn in the schedule was theirs.

Europeans, noting that Halo’s music was closer to Europe than America, also did not want to miss out on the symbolism.

In China, Russia, and Japan, they thought that a new concert was being planned at this time to ease political tensions.

In the Middle East, countries like the UAE [United Arab Emirates] and Saudi Arabia started a We need HALO hashtag campaign,

And finally, the domestic fans—.

[Wait, the date]

[Does this mean he’s coming to Korea?]

[Why, what day is it? Is there something in November?]

Their hearts began to race.

The world tour starts at the end of October.

After the second Hamilton performance, the day that fans had been waiting for would come.

[It’s November 14th]

[My favorite number ㅠㅠ 1114]

Even though the date wasn’t written exactly, the fans were sure that was the day.

February, Nohaeil’s official debut month, was when the singer disappeared and was noisy in many ways, so they couldn’t celebrate it. They celebrated it formally, but it was a half-hearted anniversary without the person in question.

They missed one such disappointing anniversary and were waiting for another anniversary.

[It’s Haeil’s birthday]

Seeing that the next performance was scheduled for November 20th, it was certain.

Even though Nohaeil wasn’t having his birthday party in Korea, Koreans were already getting excited.

That’s how the movement to have Halo in every place arose.

Around that time, Solomon appeared.

[But aren’t you all going to go no matter where he performs?]

└ ㅇㅇ I’m going to go to all of them as long as the ticketing times aren’t the same

└ My Chinese friend said the same thing

└ What does nationality matter? I’ll go as long as I can get a ticket

└ Nothing is more important than a Halo concert: not country, race, gender, or religion

└ This is a true borderless worldㅋㅋㅋ lol

└ Realization of a global community

└ Nobel Peace Prize for Halo!

#

Last summer, they overcame the heat with the label’s air conditioning, but this summer, it seems they are overcoming it with the air conditioning in the container and the car.

The individual music video shooting had already been finished for a long time, and the music video production was in its final stages.

The concert in the city center that Halo said he wanted to do on the last day on Earth was filmed with CG [Computer-Generated Imagery, digitally created visuals]. It would probably only be seen in its completed form in the music video.

What they are filming now is the first outdoor shot.

When they were filming a scene where they accidentally ran into Frau at the bus stop and walked side by side, singing.

Suddenly, Frau, who was excited, started dancing, and Halo looked at him dumbfounded, wondering, ‘What is this?’ and soon burst out laughing.

Filming was naturally interrupted, but no one was angry or annoyed.

Rather, when Halo watched Frau, who had no intention of stopping his excitement, and followed his dance even a little, the atmosphere became overheated.

It didn’t feel like they were filming, but like they were just hanging out.

He preferred songs that only contained his voice to songs with multiple voices, but he thought that this kind of collaboration, and this kind of music video, wouldn’t be bad.

When the filming was over.

“By the way, what kind of watch is that?”

Frau showed interest for the first time.

“This?”

“Yeah.”

Halo, who was told that he didn’t need to take it off during filming, showed the watch on his left arm.

It was a gift he had received from Switzerland a while ago.

The form that looked like chocolate stuck to a school bag was transformed by the hands of artists and completed in a form beyond imagination.

His watch, which expressed the hour and minute hands with beads instead of common needles, was unique in itself and beautiful with the universe and rotating planets expressed on it.

Moreover, what was more characteristic was that the watch had no unique noise and that you could touch the beads directly with your hands.

Such a unique watch quite stimulated Frau’s desire to collect.

He collected luxury watches whenever they came out, let alone cars, and he knew that the watch Halo was wearing was a luxury item at first glance.

Perhaps, if paparazzi shots – which were surprisingly not out yet – were to surface, it would become quite a hot topic.

“It looks like it’s made in Switzerland. Don’t tell me you matched it with your lover?”

Halo scoffed, wondering what he was talking about.

“If you didn’t match it with your lover, can you introduce me to them? I quite like it.”

“Does it look good?”

“Yeah.”

Halo smiled contentedly because he had drawn the initial draft.

“Actually, I designed this.”

“Designed…”

In that moment, Frau realized that this watch had a greater value than he thought. Not worth hundreds, but a watch designed directly by Halo. It could be seen as the only watch in the world.

“Okay, I take back what I just said.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t just make one. I can give one to you too.”

“Hmm, what do you want me to do?”

Frau immediately understood what he meant.

“If you don’t have any schedule that day.”

“Don’t tell me—”

Frau, who knew that Halo only had one schedule, widened his eyes.

“I thought you would ask Jason.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you two are close, right? Aren’t you?”

Looking at Halo’s expression, it didn’t seem like they were close at all.

Frau, remembering that the grumpy Jason couldn’t do anything to Halo, scratched the back of his head, thinking, ‘They seemed close,’ and said it wasn’t.

“Thank you, I didn’t know you would invite me.”

“Are you coming?”

“Of course. It’s Halo’s concert, not someone else’s. But which performance are you talking about?”

“How about Hamilton?”

“Oh, it’s surprising that it’s not LA. I will follow the path of God, Your Majesty.”

Frau, who is Canadian, chuckled.

Then, is he planning to invite Jason to the LA performance? He didn’t bother asking about this.

“But, I won’t take the watch. I don’t want to perform at a friend’s concert to get a watch.”

“I was going to give it to all the other guests.”

“…You know what? I have that habit of always being picky once in a while. My nickname isn’t Popcorn for nothing.”

Frau immediately changed his words and talked nonsense.

“So, the watch is for guest gifts? Specially made?”

“That’s not it. Originally, I was going to give it to the fans.”

“Oh? To the fans? How?”

“As a concert gift.”

“···?”

Huh?

Frau slowly tilted his head.

As far as he knew, Halo was performing once in each of the 10 cities. So that’s a total of ten times. So how many watches did he make?

“I only made a thousand. I want to give them all out, but it’s difficult time-wise.”

“A thousand? You’re giving some to us and the rest to the fans? How are you going to give them out?”

Frau’s expression became increasingly strange.

From the moment he heard the word thousand.

“No, a thousand is for the fans, and I ordered these additionally. There aren’t many, so it’s not good to take some out, right?”

“Ah…”

A thousand or nine hundred and ninety.

It didn’t seem much different.

“Um, is your concert venue a small theater?”

“I don’t think so.”

That’s right.

Even when he saw it, it was a venue with more than 10,000 seats.

It was small for Halo’s venue – but the number of performances was more of a problem –

“Then how are you going to give it to the fans?”

At that question, Halo smiled and repeated what he had said to his manager.

“The luck that comes by chance is always more enjoyable.”

“Ahem. ‘By chance’… That’s going to be fun.”

Frau awkwardly replied as if reading a textbook.

If he had just said it was a gift for all the audience who came to the concert, he would have said he would try ticketing instead of receiving a gift.

He couldn’t even bring up the ticketing.

Ticketing is already hard enough. A ticketing with a limited edition goodie called a watch. It was definitely a goodie that even most Hollywood stars wouldn’t try.

First of all, he was sure that he would never succeed in ticketing.

“Halo, you know what? Do you have any personal feelings for your fans?”

The 16-year-old boy with a clear face looks puzzled.

“Why would I?”

“That’s right. But why. No. So, the gift method is a lottery, right? The people who win will really like it.”

“Yeah. That’s what I want.”

Frau stammered.

They will like it, but.

Frau, who had once experienced Japanese-style gacha [a type of vending machine-dispensed capsule toy known for its lottery-like nature], knew how crazy it could make people.

“Then what about the people who don’t win?”

This is the question Frau wanted to ask, but the boy answered without a care.

“They can aim for the next opportunity.”

As if not eating breakfast meant you could eat lunch.

This was a method that only someone who had not experienced the lottery could do. Clearly, the boy had never experienced gacha.

In fact, it was natural.

In the past, Halo didn’t need to buy the lottery and had no interest in gambling.

Even concert tickets, which were as hard as picking stars in the sky, were simply obtained by telling an acquaintance (usually the concert organizer), and even in the past, there was no such thing as a full-fledged lottery system like today.

The boy, who had always been chosen for his talent and popularity, thought about the joy of those who were chosen, but did not consider the pain of those who would not be chosen.

That’s how in early July.

When Halo’s ticketing site opened sequentially, people became aware of the existence of the golden ticket.

It was exactly after the ticketing was over, so there was a little time left, but it was not far off.

Halo’s ticketing had different time zones for each country, so people from all over the world could rush to ticketing in every country.

In a way, it was giving people quite a few opportunities, unlike Nohaeil.

On the other hand, it was also more devilish.

If the ticketing site opened at the same time, a certain amount of strategy would be possible, but if it opened at different times, there would be no strategy.

In the 21st century, where you can go anywhere in the world if you have money, a country you have never been to will not be a major obstacle to your choice.

In early July. The ticket master site began to open sequentially with an hour’s leeway.

The start was from LA ticketing.

Capacity of 12, 245 people.

Unlike how happy they had been until now, Americans were anxious about being the first in ticketing, wondering why the first start was in LA.

And a full hour and forty-five minutes after the ticketing opened. When the chaos caused by the incidents that occurred in the middle was roughly subsided, someone uploaded their ticket to the blue bird [likely a reference to Twitter/X].

[@My_kittyyyyy_Sun: I think I won something. What is this? #Hey_Losers #Look_My_ticket #HAHA #Gold_ticket #And_Next_show]